LGA Conference on Safer Communities Wednesday 9 December

Prevent and local authorities Matt Collins, Head of Prevent Delivery Unit, OSCT The terrorist threat level is ‘severe’ – meaning that an attack in this country is ‘highly likely’.

But the threats we face have changed:

- Daesh is much larger and better resourced than AQ and is trying to create and establish a state;

- unlike AQ, Daesh is also trying to radicalise large numbers of people here and in other western countries and has attracted far more foreign fighters and supporters;

- its social media propaganda is intense.

Foreign fighters and supporters are encouraged either to travel or to conduct simple but effective terrorist attacks here. Syrian travellers and returnees

- 800+ people of security interest have travelled to Syria/Iraq since the conflict began; about 50% have returned. Many other have travelled for a range of reasons.

- High proportion of all early travellers were motivated by humanitarian not extremist issues.

- Greater proportion of all later travellers intend to join Daesh; fewer are returning.

- Greater proportion of later travellers are women and children; average age has decreased.

- Greater proportion of later travellers are being stopped before departure. Our response: Prevent

• Daesh makes Prevent more important

• The aim of Prevent is to *stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism* by: countering ideology and propaganda; supporting people at risk of radicalisation (Channel); and working with key institutions.

• Prevent is intended to pre-empt criminal activity – to protect and not to criminalise communities

• Prevent is prioritised according to risk – the greatest risk of radicalisation is currently from Daesh but extreme right wing organisations is also within the scope of the programme

• Prevent is not concerned with matters of faith but issues of ideology and radicalisation Prevent duty

• The Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 places a duty on specified authorities to ‘have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism’.

• The duty does not itself change the nature of our Prevent work – the strategy (2011) still stands and currently remains the basis for our work.

• Five key themes throughout the guidance which apply across all sectors: understand risks; ensure effective leadership; use the Prevent partnerships; develop capability/ knowledge; and establish appropriate information sharing arrangements.

• Effect of the duty has been: an increase in Prevent activity, notably in education and with Channel referrals, and to make application of Prevent more consistent Prevent duty: what it means for you

- Local authorities and Prevent coordinators continue to be vital for Prevent work.

- More even balance between the work of policing and contributions from other statutory partners.

- Local authorities are best placed to identify community based organisations who can deliver Prevent.

- Local authorities will be directly involved in the growing volume of casework in and outside of Channel, notably with families and children; legal issues – role of Family Courts – still to be clarified.

- The duty will require more training and familiarisation across all partners. Prevent: key issues

- We want to increase the number of community based organisations to support and deliver a range of Prevent initiatives. Keen to expand into existing third sector organisations.

- We are expanding Channel - now a mandatory requirement; referrals and current casework have increased sharply (notably from education); want to refer more people with links to Syria to the programme.

- We are facing growing numbers of people who need safeguarding outside of Channel for radicalisation reasons: new legal issues emerging.

- We are increasing work with social media providers to remove Daesh online propaganda in line with T’s and C’s. We are producing more guidance about online propaganda and sponsoring more effective online community based rebuttal of Daesh ideology. Countering extremism

• In October, the Government published a new Counter Extremism strategy.

• Prevent is one part of the strategy. But the strategy deals with harms other than terrorism which are caused by extremism – eg hate crime (including Islamophobia). Emphasises that extremism is important not only because it can legitimise and encourage terrorism.

• Strategy proposes stronger work to promote British values and to build community cohesion: both are important for Prevent but cannot be done from a counter terrorist team.

• Coordination between Prevent and wider counter extremism work will be essential… Conclusions

• Daesh is not more of the same: it brings a different kind of threat.

• Daesh makes Prevent increasingly important.

• The duty is part of our renewed response to the changing threat.

• It is based on the existing Prevent strategy and many organisations are already meeting its requirements.

• Local authorities have been for many years, and will continue to be, a key part of our response to the terrorist threat.